The Ladies and the Gramps
by Herminbean
Summary: The Doctor is so keen to get away on another adventure, he risks travelling blind in order to trick Nardole. However, this has an unforeseen consequence and the Doctor comes face to face with his future.


**The Lady and the Gramps**

"But, if you put one hand into the TARDIS and the other hand around the outside, couldn't you move the hand inside the TARDIS around enough that it would feel like you were moving it through the hand outside the TARDIS?"

Bill was in one of her questioning moods, which the Doctor was quickly realizing was her default mood. Most of the time it was fascinating. Bill tended to question things the Doctor never even thought to. Today, however, the Doctor wasn't in the mood. He was itching to go on an adventure and thought he could sneak away from Nardole by suggesting he pop out to pick everyone up a take away. He quickly saw through that ruse however when the Doctor insisted that taking the TARDIS would be quicker and also insisted he needed Bills help to help carry everything. And so here they were, The Doctor, Bill AND Nardole, going on a boring trip to the nearest take away.

"I don't think you could get your hands far enough into the TARDIS to wrap around to be perfectly frank." Nardole answered. "The doors, for a start, would get in the way."

"OK, but say we removed the doors." Bill said, stroking her chin and looking at the doorway.

"I think it's a bit more complicated than that, right Doctor?" Nardole said, turning on the Doctor.

The Doctor was about to snap at Nardole, but then a thought crossed his mind. A new plan began to formulate. "I don't know, it might be worth checking out."

The Doctor began pushing at buttons frantically. Nardole gave him a puzzled look. "Worth checking out? How do you expect to do that?"

"By removing the doors, of course."

The Doctor continued to press buttons and pull levers excitedly. Nardole was clearly suspicious. "And you need to use the console, why?"

"How else do you suggest I remove them?"

"The door is wooden." Nardole pointed out. "And held up by hinges…and screws. So I'd suggest using a screwdriver."

"A screwdriver?" The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Nardole, that is a multi-dimensional, triple secure encrypted door created by the most advanced species in the known universe."

"So, a screwdriver wouldn't work?" Bill piped up.

The Doctor shrugged. "I dunno, but I don't own a screwdriver."

"You use one all the time." Nardole spluttered indignantly.

"I use a SONIC screwdriver." The Doctor pulled out his sonic and gave it a whir. "Emphasis on the sonic, and less on the screw."

Bill chuckled to herself for a reason lost on the Doctor. Still, it didn't matter. The Doctor was almost done with his plan.

"Sir, I must object." Nardole put his boss face on. "I'm not a fool, I know what you're planning, and if the end of your little flurry on the console happens to be "accidentally" finding ourselves on a different planet or a different time, I will not be happy."

Nardole certainly wasn't a fool. Still, he wasn't quick enough to stop the Doctor. He gave Nardole a wicked smile. "Nardole, you think so little of me. I just want to remove the doors."

With that, the Doctor pulled the final lever, and everything went haywire. The whole TARDIS lurched and the lights went haywire. The console sparked angrily causing the Doctor to step back and cover his face. The cloister bonged dramatically several times and a few more alarms sounded. And then, everything went dark. Slowly the emergency lights on the console lit up giving the three very limited view of the darkened console room. One thing the Doctor could see, however, was Nardoles angry face.

"Doctor, I swear…" He started.

The Doctor held up his finger to silence Nardole. He stopped talking without hesitation. There weren't many times the Doctor had the look that silenced Nardole, but when he did, Nardole knew that something was seriously wrong.

"Doctor." Bill said in a whisper. "What happened?"

"I don't know." The Doctor admitted. Bill always got nervous when he said that. "The TARDIS is on emergency power. Something drained it almost completely."

Bill looked around the darkened TARDIS. "Has this ever happened before?"

"Yeah."

"Well that's OK then."

"It's never gone well."

"Less OK."

The Doctor darted to the TARDIS doors. "All we can do is hope is we landed somewhere safe."

He placed his hands on the doors, turned back to his TARDIS team, gave them a reassuring smile, and opened the doors.

The Doctor took a step back. He rubbed his chin in wonder. Bill and Nardole joined him and stared in wonder out the TARDIS doors…at some Police Box doors.

"You did just open these, right?" Bill asked, looking at the second set of TARDIS doors.

The Doctor walked cautiously up to the second doors. He reached a tentative hand forward and stroked the sign. It was slightly different to his, but undeniably was the same doors. The Doctor closed his hand into a fist, and knocked gently on the door.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Bill hissed in a whisper.

The Doctor turned to look at Bill. "What?" Then a thought occurred to him. He pulled out his TARDIS key. "Ah, of course. No need to knock, good thinking."

He bent down and slid the key into the doors.

"That isn't what I…" Bill didn't get to finish her thought. Suddenly, the second set of doors clicked, and. Swung open themselves. Nardole and Bill took a few anxious steps back, but the Doctor stayed put.

Standing in front of the Doctor was a short, blonde lady. She was wearing a long, grey jacket and a red t-shirt with a rainbow pattern across the front. Her trousers were too short for her and seemed to be kept up even higher by useless suspenders. All around, the Doctor was not too keen on this woman's dress sense.

The woman studied the Doctors face with a mixture of excitement and concern. "Ah. Ah. OK, this is…right." She turned back and talked to some unseen person behind her. "When I said nothing to worry about, I might have spoken too soon."

The Doctors hearts jumped. He was certain of who he would find behind those doors, who else could it be? But her? This couldn't be…but it all seemed to fit. The dress sense he hated. The strange talking pattern. The fact the she was the one who dared venture out here. She could only be one person.

"Doctor?" He asked.

"Doctor." She smiled broadly at the Doctor. "My my, I really did used to go for that dark intimidating look, didn't I?"

The Doctor looked his future self up and down. "I knew that business of sharing my regeneration energy with Davros would catch up with me."

The new Doctor raised an eyebrow at the old Doctor. "Was that a dig at my height?"

"Well…" He motioned at her generally and nodded.

The new Doctor pushed past the old Doctor and bustled into her old TARDIS. "Aah, the kitchen look. The lighting isn't quite like I remember though. I'm guessing your TARDIS drained the same as mine."

Suddenly the new Doctor spotted the two companions who were watching the whole thing transpire with utter confusion. She stared at them both as if trying to process what she was seeing. Then a massive smile appeared on her face.

"Bill." The new Doctor ran up and wrapped her arms around Bill. Bill tried to pull back, but not much. She debated whether to hug her back, but before she could the new Doctor pulled away and turned to Nardole. "Nardy. Oh how I've missed that dome of yours." She patted him gently on the head then took him into a big embrace as well.

The old Doctor was still standing by the doorway. This new regeneration certainly was bubbly, so he decided to stand back for now. Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor spun around to see three faces peering through the doorways. He could only assume that these were either future companions or temporary hitch-hikers. Either way, he thought he better try to make a good impression. But before he had a chance to try, his future self came bustling over.

"Aah, guys." She grabbed the young girl and guy by the shoulders and led them into the old Doctors TARDIS. "Let me introduce you Nardole, Bill, this is Ryan, Yas and over there hiding behind eyebrows is Graham."

An older man walked uncertainly into the TARDIS and waved meekly. "Nice to meet you all. I'm assuming you lot are just as lost as me."

Nardole took off his glasses and gave them a wipe with his handkerchief. "Well, I'm assuming that this rather lively lady here is one of my angry friends new faces." He popped his glasses back on and looked her up and down. "And if I may say, good job. A vast improvement."

"Thank you Nardy." The new Doctor beamed. "I missed you."

Nardole smirked at the old Doctor. "Knew you cared."

"Wait, new face?" Yas asked. "What does he mean, Doctor."

"Deary me Yas, I'd expect you to remember me telling you I used to be a white haired Scotsman." She motioned the old Doctor and put on a thick Scottish accent. "Well och aye the noo."

"You used to be…hang on, when did you tell me that?" Yas was trying to take everything in.

"When we first met."

"You mean when you smashed through the roof of…"

"Ah, better keep that to us." The new Doctor turned to the old Doctor. "What is it we say? Spoilers."

"Man, this is trippy." Ryan said. "Gotta admit, still kind of lost."

"You're not alone there, mate." Bill nudged him, causing him to stagger slightly. She moved up to the new Doctor. "So, this is future you?"

The new Doctor gave her a twirl. "You like?"

Bill smiled. "I really do." She looked to Yas. "No offense, but is it OK if we trade?"

Yas looked at the old Doctor. "Erm, I think we're OK."

"Alright alright, enough of this." The old Doctor strode over the group. "We have to figure things out. You, me, in your TARDIS."

The new Doctor scrunched up her face. "Really?"

"We need to discuss in private."

"Yeah, but…" The new Doctor seemed conflicted.

"But what?"

"OK, we can go in. But, if you say one bad thing about my redesign we are coming straight back."

The old Doctor smirked. "Would I say anything negative about your redesign? Why would you think that?"

The new Doctor scowled, but it quickly turned into a smirk. "Right, follow me." She darted past the old Doctor and turned back to the gang. "You guys have a nice chat. But my group, keep it vague, OK? Don't want to reveal too much of the future to my good friends here. In fact, probably best to not talk at all. I'm sure I got some board games around. Have a look for them."

The two Doctors left the old TARDIS and walked into the new one. The old Doctor looked around. It was hard to see with emergency lighting, but it was certainly different. The column in the middle in particular. The old Doctor couldn't help but scrunch up his face.

"Not a word." The new Doctor said.

"No no, it's…" He nodded to the column. "Is that, like, an energy crystal or something?"

The new Doctor looked at it. "I don't know exactly. Beautiful though, isn't it?"

The old Doctor cleared his throat and checked out the readings on the new monitor. "So, what exactly were you doing before we bumped together?"

"Nothing in particular. Trying to get to a new planet, same old same old."

The old Doctor smiled. "Nice to see I get back to that eventually."

"Ah, of course. How is Missy?"

"You know how she is."

"True, just being polite." She walked over to the old Doctor. "So what were you doing?"

"Same as you, trying to get to a new planet."

The new Doctor frowned. "Thought at this point you were guarding the vault?"

"Yep, and you remember how that went?"

"Ah yes. Booooring. So, you were trying to get off planet sneakily?"

"Exactly."

"Did you by any chance turn off the safety protocols?"

The old Doctor thought. "I mean….probably."

"The super important safety protocols that stop time crashes?"

The old Doctor searched for an excuse, but none came to mind. "OK, let's just say there are faults on both sides."

The new Doctor shook her head and pressed a few more buttons on the console. "Well, this crash was more of a sideswipe I'd say. Could have been worst."

"That would explain why the power went down. Two TARDIS pressed together in the same time and place, the power isn't sure which TARDIS to charge. It can't reach either of our engines."

"Not enough power for either TARDIS to take off. We're stuck in an energy loop and a time loop." The new Doctor sighed. "Why can't these things ever be a happy occasion? We should really get together for Christmas dinner or something, nice change of pace."

"Yeah, was thinking of skipping Christmas. Those aren't exactly stress free for us."

"True true." The new Doctor leant into the monitor scrunching her face up in thought. "You know, we only really need about 38% power for my TARDIS to take off. If we can find that power from somewhere."

"What are you on right now?"

The new Doctor tapped her monitor. "6%"

"Can only assume mine is around the same."

"No chance of busting out the jumper cables and bumping my ride then?"

The old Doctor thought deeply. He looked around the TARDIS. "Do you still have your safe box?"

The new Doctor looked at him. "I assume so. No reason to get rid of that."

The old Doctor flipped open the new Doctors jacket and rummaged inside. She was ready to hit him, but assumed he had some reason. The old Doctor pulled out the new Doctors sonic. He turned it over in his hands, and looked up at the column again.

"Going for a theme, eh?" He asked.

"I like crystals, alright? And what you doing with that?"

"Borrowing it."

"How long for? I'm rather attached."

"Only for about…" He thought. "How much older are you?"

The new Doctor frowned. It didn't take her long to get the same idea. That giant smile spread across her face. "Man, I am a genius."

The two Doctors rushed back into the old TARDIS. The group had sat down, some on chairs, others on the floor. They were looking at Nardole as he regaled them with a story, all of them with a baffled expression on their face.

"…and then the giant robot cut off my head and incorporated it into its own body. Sometimes I miss that old body of mine. This one I'm fairly certain the Doctor just got cheap from a pawn shop. Still, it's better than my first body. That one was riddled with organs and other squishy things…"

Bill saw the Doctors enter and quickly cut Nardole off. "Wow, you guys took your time."

"Yeah, no offence mate, but you kind of lost me around the part where that lady boss of yours found and saved you from a pit of sentient sand." Graham admitted.

Nardole looked hurt. He turned his attention to the two Doctors. "So, got a plan?"

"We certainly do." The old Doctor said. He held up the sonic and gave it a buzz.

"Is that your sonic?" Bill asked, transfixed. "It's beautiful."

The new Doctor gave the old Doctor a smug look. "Thank you, Bill."

Nardole shook his head. "I'm pretty sure a little bit of sonicing won't make much of a difference, Doctor."

"Not right now, admittedly." The old Doctor said. He tapped a few buttons and a small compartment opened in the TARDIS console. "But it just needs a little bit of power."

Yas looked over the old Doctors shoulder as he hooked the sonic up to the console. "So, you're going to charge the sonic?"

"A+ to Yas." The new Doctor said, tapping her on the shoulder. "Charge the sonic, charge my TARIDS, off we pop."

Nardole looked dubious. "First problem with that, this TARIDS barely has any power. It really isn't going to charge your sonic enough. Second, even if it could charge, it would take…" He struggled to find the right word.

"About 50 years I'd say." The old Doctor said. "Does that sound right to you?"

"Hmm, maybe 56? Give or take a year or so." The new Doctor pondered.

"Ah, well, guess Nardole can finish off his little story in that case." Bill said sarcastically.

"Seriously, Doctor. We can't hang around for 56 years." Yas agreed.

"Indeed we can't." The new Doctor turned to the old Doctor and nodded. The old Doctor pressed a button on the console and the compartment the sonic was hooked up in closed. "Fortunately I'm very good at being patient."

The two Doctors turned and headed back to the new TARDIS with a swagger. The group looked from one to the other, confused and followed. In the new TARDIS, the Doctors pressed a few buttons and another compartment opened up. Or rather the same compartment opened up. And inside, the same sonic sat, still hooked up.

"Wow, that's like a magic trick." Ryan said, mouth agape.

"Well, all thanks to my magician friend here." The new Doctor beamed at her younger self. She carefully unhooked her sonic and held it to her ear. "Fully charged. Ready to roll, team TARDIS."

She spun the sonic around in her hand and slid it into a slot on the console. The whole room seemed to come to life with light and sound, and the TARDIS once again hummed happily to itself. The new Doctor turned and beamed at everyone.

"Ready to roll indeed." The old Doctor smiled back. "Right, you two, back to the TARDIS."

Nardole took Bill by the hand and lead her back to their TARDIS. Bill was looking around the new TARDIS in wonder, muttering to herself how amazing it looked compared to the one they rode in. The old Doctor followed behind and stood in his doorway. The new doctor followed suit and stood in her own doorway.

"So, I guess this is bye for now." The old Doctor said.

"I guess so." The new Doctor smiled. "I just wanted to say, thank you."

"For what?"

"For being so brave."

The old Doctor laughed. "This was hardly the scariest situation we've been in."

The new Doctor smiled, but not her usual beaming smile. This smile seemed sad. "I didn't mean just now." She wrapped her arms around her younger self and give him a hug. She whispered in his ear. "I heard you, old man. And I promise you, I will always be kind."

She pulled away from the old Doctor but kept hold of his hand, giving it a shake. The old Doctor was giving her a strange look. He was trying to figure out what she meant by that. He was so preoccupied with figuring it out, he didn't realise he was still shaking her hand.

"Doctor." Her voice snapped him back. She nodded down at their hands. "You have to let me go."

He let go abruptly and gave her a smile. She returned with her beaming smile. They both raised their hands at the same time, and with a snap of their fingers both the doors swung shut.


End file.
